Date of Award

5-2013

Document Type

Independent Study

Degree Name

Master of Science (MS)

Abstract

Evidence-based clinical obesity guidelines have been published in the United States by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the National 1-lemt Lung and Blood Institute (NHLBI), the US Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF), and the Institute for Clinical Systems Improvement (ICSI), and in the United Kingdom by the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE). The first federal clinical obesity guidelines were published by the NI-ILBI in 1998 (Schuster, Tasosa, & Terwoord, 2008). Unfortunately America's health care system seems to have distanced itself from addressing, let alone implementing evidence-based guidelines related to this primary clu·onic disease risk factor. If allowed unchecked, this disco1mect will result in nothing but a disservice to the patient population. The critical question addressed by this paper is whether or not evidence-based solutions exist to guide health care systems towards effectively and efficiently preventing and managing obesity among its patient population. In order to answer this question, a literature review was conducted on articles written in the English language and published between the period of 2002 and 2012 via database searches of the Cochrane Library, MEDLINE, CINAHL, and SCOPUS. Kmt Lewin's Organizational Three-Step Change Theory, Lippitt's Phases of Change Theory, the Total Quality Management (TQM) Theory, and the 5As framework served to guide proposed solution(s). Evidence-based recommendations for guideline implementation were assigned to five categories: prompts, clinician training, clinician health, multi-factorial interventions, and the health care system. Implications for nursing include embracing the practice facilitation role, as well as embedding guideline information and guideline-specific implementation supports into nursing research, practice, policy, and education

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